The Little Brothers of St. Francis (originally founded as the Franciscan Brothers of Peace and Love) were members of a Roman Catholic institute of Religious Brothers founded in the Archdiocese of Boston on September 8, 1970, by Brother James T. Curran, L.B.S.F. (1932 - 2015).[1]
James T. Curran was born in Boston, Massachusetts on June 13, 1932, the son of James P. and Anna V. Diffley Curran. He grew up in the North End and was an active member of St. Leonard's parish. He attended Boston University and for a number of years performed with the National Opera Company.[1] He felt called to follow a life of prayer and service among the poor. In this goal, he was guided by the Franciscan friars of Immaculate Conception Province who provided him fraternal support and spiritual direction. On September 9, 1951, he professed vows as a Franciscan tertiary (Secular Franciscan).[3]
In 1970 Curran founded the "Franciscan Brothers of Peace and Love", and in 1976 changed its name to the "Little Brothers of St. Francis" to minister to Boston's homeless. The first home of the community was his apartment on Beacon Hill in downtown Boston. He eventually gained the blessing of the Archbishop of Boston, CardinalHumberto Medeiros, who was himself a member of the Third Order of St. Francis (Secular Franciscan Order). The cardinal allowed him to take religious vows and to wear a Franciscan habit, even though he was alone at that point. He soon adopted a habit made of denim, which quickly became the distinguishing mark of the community, earning them the nickname of the "Blue jeans Franciscans."
Curran's way of life was to keep working at his job while spending several hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. He then would go out among the homeless who would congregate in downtown Boston, especially around the Boston Common, and distribute peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, coffee, underwear, T-shirts, and white cotton socks. As other men came to join him, the community eventually relocated to a house in the Mission Hill section of Boston, among the city's poorest. The community never grew large, however, numbering seven Brothers at its peak around 2008.
In 2006, Curran received the Institute on Religious Life's Pro Fidelitate et Virtute Award for his fidelity to his vocation as a religious brother and for supporting the IRL as a board member, coordinator of the Boston Regional Meeting, and as chairman of the Forum of Superiors of Men's Communities.
On November 23, 2008, the Archdiocese of Boston awarded Curran the Cheverus Award Medal in order to recognize his service to the Church and to God's people.[4]
On August 29, 2009, four members of the Little Brothers of St. Francis were invited by Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, to serve as acolytes at the Funeral Mass of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. The Mass was held at the Basilica and Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the parish to which the Little Brothers of St. Francis' belonged and where they attended daily Mass.
In 2012, due to declining health, Brother James became a resident of the Don Orione Nursing Home in East Boston. In the community's last newsletter of November 2012, it was announced that the community was disbanding. Another religious congregation, the Brotherhood of Hope, has acquired the property at 785-789 Parker Street, Mission Hill, MA.
Brother James died on June 28, 2015, at St. Joseph Manor Health Care in Brockton, Massachusetts at the age of eighty-three. The Mass of Christian Burial was held at Mission Church (Basilica and Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help) in Roxbury, MA on July 1, 2015. Interment was held at Mount Benedict Cemetery in West Roxbury, MA.
Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italian mystic, poet and Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. He was inspired to lead a Christian life of poverty as a beggar and itinerant preacher. One of the most venerated figures in Christianity, Francis was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on 16 July 1228. He is commonly portrayed wearing a brown habit with a rope tied around his waist, featuring three knots that symbolize the three Franciscan vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant religious orders of the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi, these orders include three independent orders for men, orders for nuns such as the Order of Saint Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis open to male and female members. They adhere to the teachings and spiritual disciplines of the founder and of his main associates and followers, such as Clare of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, and Elizabeth of Hungary. Several smaller Protestant Franciscan orders exist as well, notably in the Anglican and Lutheran traditions.
St. Joseph's Seminary and College, sometimes referred to as Dunwoodie after the Dunwoodie neighborhood of Yonkers, New York in which it is located, is the major seminary of the Archdiocese of New York. Since 2012, it has also been the major seminary for the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Diocese of Rockville Centre.
The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary are a Roman Catholic centralized religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women founded by Mother Mary of the Passion at Ootacamund, then British India, in 1877. The missionaries form an international religious congregation of women representing 77 nationalities spread over 74 countries on five continents.
The Order of the Immaculate Conception, abbreviated OIC and also known as the Conceptionists, is a Catholic religious order of Pontifical Right for nuns founded by Saint Beatrice of Silva. For some years, they followed the Poor Clares Rule, but in 1511 they were recognized as a separate religious order, taking a new rule and the name of Order of the Immaculate Conception.
The Third Order of Saint Francis is a third order in the Franciscan tradition of Christianity, founded by the medieval Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi.
Catholic spirituality includes the various ways in which Catholics live out their Baptismal promise through prayer and action. The primary prayer of all Catholics is the Eucharistic liturgy in which they celebrate and share their faith together, in accord with Jesus' instruction: "Do this in memory of me." The Catholic bishops at the Second Vatican Council decreed that "devotions should be so drawn up that they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some fashion derived from it, and lead the people to it, since, in fact, the liturgy by its very nature far surpasses any of them." In accord with this, many additional forms of prayer have developed over the centuries as means of animating one's personal Christian life, at times in gatherings with others. Each of the religious orders and congregations of the Catholic church, as well as lay groupings, has specifics to its own spirituality – its way of approaching God in prayer to foster its way of living out the Gospel.
The Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception are a religious community of women consecrated to Christ in the Dominican charism with the mission of living the Word of God through teaching, evangelization and health care. The community was founded in 1861 by Maria Rose Columba Bialecka (1838–1887) in Poland.
The Secular Franciscan Order is the third branch of the Franciscan Family formed by Catholic men and women who seek to observe the Gospel of Jesus by following the example of Francis of Assisi. Secular Franciscans are not like the other third orders, since they are not under the higher direction of the same institute. Brothers and sisters of the Secular Franciscan Order make a spiritual commitment (promises) to their own Rule, and Secular Franciscan fraternities can not exist without the assistance of the first or second Franciscan Orders. The Secular Franciscan Order was the third of the three families founded by Francis of Assisi 800 years ago.
Emerging since the 19th century, there are several Protestant adherent and groups, sometimes organised as religious orders, which strive to adhere to the teachings and spiritual disciplines of Saint Francis of Assisi.
The Little Brothers of Francis are one of the family of Franciscan orders in the Anglican Communion. They are based in New South Wales, Australia.
A religious brother is a member of a religious institute or religious order who commits himself to following Christ in consecrated life of the Church, usually by the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. He is usually a layman and usually lives in a religious community and works in a ministry appropriate to his capabilities.
When referring to Roman Catholic religious orders, the term Second Order refers to those communities of contemplative cloistered nuns which are a part of the religious orders that developed in the Middle Ages.
The Franciscans of Primitive Observance is an association of the faithful founded in 1995 under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston that observes the Rule of Saint Francis in the Capuchin tradition. Their community population lives at the Friary of St. Joseph on 10 Highgate Street in Lawrence, MA and, until December 2020, lived at 3 Magazine St, Roxbury, MA.
The Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception are members of a Roman Catholic religious institute of consecrated women, which was founded in Portugal in 1871. They follow the Rule of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. and, as the term “hospitaller” indicates, focus their ministries on a spirit of medical care. Their charism emphasizes hospitality and service under the model of the Good Samaritan. In this congregation, the postnominal initials used after each sister's name is "F.H.I.C."
The Servants of Christ Jesus is a Catholic private association of the faithful in the Ignatian and Franciscan traditions, following the formula of the Institute of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and based in Denver, Colorado.
MartinMaria de Porres Ward, O.F.M. Conv. was an African-American Catholic priest and Franciscan friar who served as a missionary in Brazil for more than forty years. He was the first African American to join the Conventual Friars Minor.
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